Developing regional calibration coefficients for estimation of hourly global solar radiation in Ireland

ABSTRACT

This study proposed regional coefficients for estimating hourly global solar radiation through the adaptation of some empirical models that relate radiation to climatological and geographical variables. A total of 10 models were adapted over 7 stations in Ireland. The performance of the models was evaluated using some selected error indicators including the global performance index which combines all other error indices. The results indicated that the sunshine based regional calibration coefficients generated through a polynomial approach was most superior over other models with the lowest RMSE (0.2–0.3 MJm⁻² hr⁻¹), MAE (0.1–0.2 MJm⁻² hr⁻¹) and Pbias (0–7.0%) and highest R² and KGE (>0.85). The study found no local effect such as instrumental siting, observational uncertainty and climate on the variations of these coefficients. This outcome will therefore facilitate the design of various local and/or regional solar energy applications at microscale in a temperate region.

KEYWORDS:

• Global radiation
• calibration coefficients
• solar energy applications

Acknowledgements

We appreciate the Irish Meteorological Service for providing the data used for this study. The contributions of the reviewers to improving the quality of this paper are also acknowledged.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Kazeem Abiodun Ishola http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3264-0910

Stuart Green http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2492-537X

Additional information

Funding

This work is supported by Teagasc Irish Agriculture and Food Development Authority under the project ref: 2016076.